


Stranger things Snippit Ideas

by TMNTFOREVER666



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, Asexual Dustin Henderson, Beating, Brain Damage, Concussions, Dustin Henderson Needs a Hug, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Female Dustin Henderson, Female Steve Harrington, Friendship, Gay Will Byers, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Omega Dustin Henderson, Powers!Dustin Henderson
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-07-30 04:46:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20091496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TMNTFOREVER666/pseuds/TMNTFOREVER666
Summary: Because there isn't a kink/prompt meme I can find, and I have so many ideas that I'm gonna start posting them here so if I actually decide to write one I'll hve it to hand, and if anyone else wants to write one, they also have it to hand! (just let me know if you take one and write it because Ii'd really want to read it!)Quite a lot of Dustin in here, and Will surprisingly. I just feel they're relationship was never fully explored, and I find I have a lot of feels for them.Some ideas are M-Rated, but they are clearly marked in the chapter title. Use your own common sense.





	1. Fem!Steve & Fem!Dustin, bonding, SnowBall

Gender change Verse!

Steve is a girl : Stevie  
Dustin is a girl : Dusty (after Dusty Springfield who was her mothers favourite singer)

(Don't ask how everything works out in season 1, what with Nancy and Jonathan still themselves and Stevie not being gay. Maybe she'd been scoping out the competition for her boyfriend (insert asshole name here), maybe said asshole boyfriend pressured her into trying a threesome, maybe there was no boyfriend and Stevie just really wanted to be friends, but sucks at it because her only friends before were Tommy and Carol.)

At any rate, Stevie ends falling out with Nancy as per season 2, with the other girl calling their friendship bullshit, and having to put up with Billy Hargrove harassing her near constantly.

Dusty meanwhile is having troubles of her own. She was the only girl in the Party for a long time, the guys don't even really think of her as a girl, she's just Dusty. And that was fine, when the only other girl was El, who had freaking superpowers and was downright awesome! But now there's Max, whose also super cool, and Dusty is just entering that age when shes starting to reaslise that maybe she'd like to be noticed as a girl, I mean, the SnowBall's coming up, and nobodies even asked her if she'd like to go, and there's Max being all Girly, even if she's not really, she just is in a way that Dusty's not.

So Stevie goes to apologise to Nancy and try to mend their friendship, and Dusty, who can't reach any of her friends goes looking for Mike and the two meet.

Thus is born a strange duo, with Stevie giving Dusty makeup and haircare tips. Everything continues on as per the show, Billy shows up, Stevie still gets her face beat in, but does manage to get Billy in the nether regions with a well placed knee before she and the kids end up helping save the world.

Then on the day of the SnowBall, Dusty calls Stevie in a panic, her mom got called into work and had to go and Dusty has tried to do her own makeup and looks like a clown and her hairs this giant ball of frizz and please can Stevie help, please! So Stevie swoops in to save the day, turning up at Dusty's house, and they get ready for the SnowBall, then Stevie drops Dusty off.

But nobody asks her to dance. Her friends are shocked to see her actually look like a girl, but then Will gets asked to dance, then Lucas and Max pair off, and Mike's refusing to dance with anybody, and then El shows up, so he's away, and Dusty's left alone, upset (and maybe troy is being an asshole). A little later Will comes to find her, worried, because he's come back from his dance to find everyone gone, and she was the only one he couldn't see. He sits beside her, and listens as she vents that Stevies advice didn't work, that all her makeup and hair and dress does is make her look stupid, because she's not as pretty or girly enough, or anything enough. Not Stevies fault though, Stevies cool, Dusty's just... not, so it must be something she's doing wrong.

Will, frowning and unhappy that his friend feels this way, stands up and holds his hand out and tells her that "That's stupid! You're the prettiest girl here, and it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks. I want to dance with you." and stands there, all firey, protective confidence, because he can be that way sometimes, when he's really passionate about something, and when she doesn't react straight away he pulls her up to the dancefloor, and everything ok.

Not nessecarily a Dustin/Will, because I'm still party convinced Will might be gay on the show, but hell, it's just cute, and theyre too young for that kind of thing anyway.


	2. Powers!Dustin, Alternate Universe

What if Dustin was the escaped expiriment from Hawkins Lab. What if El had been the one taken into the Upside Down.   
Dustin gets his name along similar lines to how he did in this fic Right-Side Up AU [Stranger Things (2016)] by midas_touch_of_angst , When asked his name by Benny in the diner he says "Ten", Benny then asks "What's that short for kid?" and Dustin replied "Just Ten." but says it softly and with his adorable little lisp it sounds to Benny like he's saying "Dustin", and Ten decides he likes that better, so just goes along with it.

El, daughter of Chief Hopper, goes missing, no one knows what happened, he's frantic, searching everywhere. Refusing to let her little group of friends help. Of course they run off and do just that, and discover a strange boy in the woods. Dustin (or Ten). They take him to Wills, it being closest, and Wills mon and brother both work or are out helping search for El (Will was supposed to be staying at Mikes). Things sort of go at a similar pace, only Dustin stays with Will, and they form an adorable sort of friendship (because we don't see enough of that really), and Dustin helps them locate El in the Upside Down.

After everything goes down, and Dustin disappears the Demogorgan to save his new friends, and reappears in the woods, he wanders around, cold and hungry.

Steve, who has just been starting to get over the absolute shitstorm that just happened hears someone out his back, grabs his bat to go look and finds Dustin eating scraps from his bin. He takes him inside (his parents are gone again), feeds him and gets him warm and somehow gets the story out of him and realises that this is the kid everyone else was talking about. He goes to try and tell someone but Dustin stops him, worried about the lab, worried about his friends, and more than a little frightened (because yes, Papa's dead, he hopes, but they found him before through the phone and that nice man who gave him food was shot, and Steve's been nice to him any he doesn't want that).

So Steve keeps the secret, not so sure that anyone would really believe him anyway, and the two sort of knock around in Steve's big house. Steve stops seeing Nancy because he can't date and keep this weirdly adorably ridiculously pwerful kid hidden and safe, and dammit if he doesn't actually really want to, because he's been teaching the kid things, and though Dustin is clearly waaay more intelligent than he is, it's oddly enjoyable being a big brother.

Will meanwhile is trying to get over the loss of his friend, no one else really knew Dustin like he did, so they don't know how to miss him like he does, but being the quietest and most unobtrustive one he can hide it better so the others don't really know.

Then season 2 happens, the mindflayer possess's El, Will finds a baby demogorgan, Max joins the party, and when the baby demogorgan goes missing, having eaten the Byer's family dog, and Wills friends aren't in contact, and Jonathan and Nancy have disappeared somewhere, and his mom and Hopper are also incommunicado, Will goes to Steve Harrington, who his brother said helped with the demogorgan. He goes to his house, and finds, to his surprise and joy, that Dustin is still alive, and safe, and once the reunions done the three go out to hunt some Demodogs.

In the aftermath, Steve is 18, and offically takes n responsiability for his "younger half brother", (his father has many affairs, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that he culd have a half sibling out there somewhere) his parents have all but vanished it seems, so he starts to slowly introduce Dustin to Hawkins as his brother.

Season 3, Will and Dustin uncover the russian transmission. Thanks to Dustins powers they figure everything there out a lot quicker, but conversly the issue with the mindflayer grows out of all proportion, and they end up running around playing catchup.

I'm not sure how this would pan out, but the idea is an interesting one.


	3. Asexual!Dustin, Dustin/Will

Ok, two of these. (the byers never ran away from Hawkins, everything is happy and the party are all in highschool or older)

Asexual!Male Dustin/Will

Dustin and Wil get together and try and figure out this "gay thing", expirimenting with kissing and other stuff. Eventually theyslowly work their relationship out and decide to be secret boyfriends (because you know 80's bigotry. But will starts to notice (once the shine starts to wane a little and they get comfortable together) that Dustin tends to be a little disconnected during sex. Oh, hes enthuastic enough, but more often than not it's Will who instigates anything beyond cuddling. Even kissing is a bit disconnected. Hhe starts to think that Dustin doesn't want to be with him anymore, but he's confused, because Dustin still looks at him the same, likes he's the most important thing, and when he brings this up Dustin is horrified that he gave that impression.

And suddenly Dustin's the one asking for things and instigating and trying too hard, and things still don't seem right, and then finally he happens upon Dustin psyching himself up for whatever he's planning to do with Will (Will usually tops whenever they have sex, Dustin seems to prefer it, but Will has always wanted to try bottoming for once), like he excused himself real quick before they started to go clean up in the bathroom and Will follows him because he looked... upset? Worried? terrified? and Dustin's muttering to himself having forgotten to close the door

"You can do this. It's for Will. It's not his fault you're fucking defective Henderson, and you're not going to let him feel like it is, because it's not! You're going to stop sitting here like a pussy and you're going to make him happy. You can do this... it shouldn't be so fucking hard! I love him, I love him but I can't even-"

And Will can't watch as Dustin dissolves into tears as he berates himself in the mirror so he bursts in and they have a massive cuddlefest on the bathroom floor, with Will rocking Dustin until he calms down. Dustin, of course, try's to play it off as something else, try's to apologise for ruining what should have been a special night for Will, and eventually, admits, brokenly, that he's broken. That he doesn't like sex. Sometimes, when he can build himself up to it, and he knows its coming, or he's feeling very much in love and just wants to see Will content and happy, he can do it, it doesn't do anything for him, there's no rush of whatever it is people feel during sex. But he's been pushing himself further and further out of his comfort zone for a while and everything had just hit him and floored him. And he'll understand if Will wants to break up with him.

Will just holds him, and finally, when they're back in bed and snuggled up close, and they have a proper talk about their relationship, without all the expectations they're supposed to follow. Will admits that what Dustin told him is confusing, and he'll need time to process, but that he was mostly concerned that Dustin didn't want him anymore, that he knew something was wrong, and now he knows the truth they can figure it out together.

Because seriously guys, why are there not more adorable Dustin getting the love and the cuddles and the protection!

Asexual!Female Dustin/Will

Will and Dustin start dating, mostly because everyone else is pairing off. The party know Will is gay. Dusty (fem!Dustin) sugests she and Will start dating, to cover for Will so no one treats him badly (like how Dusty knows Steve pretends to be Robins boyfriend when people start being dicks). Will agrees and the two start fake dating. Will wonders, as they get older, why Dusty never "dumps his ass", doesn't she want to get with someone else? Doesn't she want to be in a real relationship. Dusty admits that she actually has no interest in sex at all, or relationships, because they normally end in sex and she finds it hard to explain that to other people.

The two are classed as "High School Sweethearts" because they've never broken up, they move on to college and later life, and actually get married. Dusty is happy being a married woman, and thus able to persue her career in the sciences (or whatever else she ends up doing) without having people hit on her, because she can just show off her ring and be done with it. (There was that one persistant asshole that Will had to punch for her one time, but he deserved it, because she'd been sick for hours with whatever he'd put in her drink).

Will on the other hand has the perfect respectable cover (for that time period), and if he went on 'work trips' to the city to hook up with men then that was his buisness. Everyone important enough to know, did, and everyone else could go screw themselves. Though a lot of people always ask him why he lives a lie, why he stays married instead of embracing his homosexuality. He just laughs and tells them that he married one of his best friends, that she knows and approves and is happy for him (that she actually shoved him out of the house two nights ago and yelled at him not to come back until he'd had boatloads of sex and stopped moping round the house), and if he did fall in love with one of the men he meets, that they'd have to accept Dusty as part of the package.

In fact, when Will does find that special man he becomes a lodger in the Byers-Henderson household, and everyone gossips that Will must be very secure in his marriage to let that good looking man into his home with his wife, and the three of them giggle about how stupid other people are and everyone is happy.


	4. The Party & Dustin, Omega AU

Mike : Alpha  
Lucas : Alpha  
Max : Beta  
Eleven : Beta (due to extensive trauma during childhood her secondry gender hormones never developed, she would have been an Alpha)  
Will : Beta (due to extensive psychological trauma of the Upside Down and possession by the mindflayer his secondry gender hormones never developed, he would have been an Omega)  
Dustin : Omega

No one presents until they're 18/19, biologys way to make sure packs can't abuse children. and A/B/O is not a sex thing, omega males can't magically give birth. It's not a secondry gender in that sense, more an idenity. Alpha's don't go made for Omega's, and Omega's don't just fall into heat all over the place. (because I sometimes have feeling about how the A/B/O universe works ok)

In this particular verse, Beta's are not just the one's left behind, they have the role of supporting the pack, providing for it, they are a stabiling force for the pack. The reason trauma changes hormones to Bbeta hormones is because its the bodys way of helping remove added stress and anxiety. Alpha's have to be in charge, protect, look after, and be on guard, and if someone has gone through an intense trauma, like Eleven, where she was forced by others to do things, was beaten down and made submissive, then the challenge of being an Alpha would be too much, and a Beta is strong enough to say no if they don't want to do things, but is protected in the pack by those who can protect her. 

Will's case is similar, being an Oomega is not an easy job, you have to deal with the pack taking things out on you, passing you over for more important things, you have to be able to help the pack patch up problems, and if it means taking the hits yourself to do it, then you do it. Because your indepensiable, and if you weren't there the pack would probably eventually fall apart because of all the in fighting. Tthe Upside down and possession left Will unable to fall into that role anymore, it might break him, so his body did the only thing it could, made him a Beta.

Anyway.

Dustin presents as an Omega, he's as surprised as anyone else, but looking back it makes sense, the only problem is that no one in the Party actually seems to have noticed, he was expecting them all to become a pack, but that doesn't seem to be happening. Then he realises they're waiting for Will, the youngest to present, and then the self doubts creep in, because everyone knows Will is going to be an Omega, and you don't ever have more than one of those in a pack, and then when Will does present, but as a Beta, and still no one's talking about pack bonding, Dustin gets worried because maybe it's because of him.

So he runs to Steve, the only other Omega he knows, aside from his mum, but Steve will totally understand, he went through problems with Jonathan and Nancy right? And with Robin? With the rest of the adults on the "Upside Down Pack" as the kids like to call it.

Meanwhile the Party are starting to get ansty, because seriously, where the hell is Dustin? Their Omega has been missing for over a week, and no one knows where he is. The Will brings up something he's been wondering, he can't remeber if they had a celbration for Dustin's presenting. Hhe remembers Dustins party that his mom gave him, but he can't recall if they had a pack celebration. Mike admits, shamefaced, that they were waiting for Will to present first, because he knew, after El presented as Beta, that Will probably would as well, and that they'd agreed to do everything offically afterwards. Will rolls his eyes and is all "And did any of you mention this to Dustin?". And no they didn't, they didn't realise Dustin would be insecure about his place in the pack, so they start to plan how to win him back in, pouring over books of Omega behaviour, trying to find the perfect ways to let Dustin know he was theirs. A courting if you will (non sexual, because that's ot how packs in my universe work)

Steve's advice had been stupid. That he just had to be patient, that the party weren't going to just leave him out, that they'd get around to asking for a proper Pack dynamic. But he's starting to see patterns, where he was left out, and though he remebered Mike telling him once that he was his best friend too, Dustin had never really believed it, he'd just shoved the doubt down and tried to forget about it.

And then he gets surprised, again and again, by memebers of the party, individually or together, doing things for him or with him, dragging him in to deal with disputes, as a sounding board for problems, letting him do his pack job. Then, finally, he egts pulled into a full party/pack gathering, and they pack bond, and Dustin finally tells them how he was feeling, about his worries and stuff, and they all reassure him and apologise.

Bonus for Dustin and Mike bonding and Mike revealing that He really meant what he said when they were twelve, that Dustin was always one of his, that he'd jump off another ledge if it meant keeping him safe, and happy, and protected.


	5. Steve & Everyone, concussions, brain damage

Stay with me on this one.

After Billy beat the shit out of him at the end of season two, with the added trip into the tunnels (and no Dustin, not forgetting that you ended up sprayed in the face either.) Steve started to notice things, or other people did. He suddenly became very clumsy, mistook easy words for different ones and found it difficult to concentrate.

Evidence in season 3: 

1\. Clumsy: he fumbles the change returning it to the girls at the counter, could have been nerves, or whatever, but this is the guy we know played basketball, swung a bat to take out a Demogorgon, we’ve never seen him that clumsy before. Also the bit with the cardboard cutout in the video store.

2\. Words: I don’t really remember him being too stupid in the previous two seasons, and yet there’s a few times when you shake your head at I’m in season 3 and wonder how stupid he could really be.

3\. Concentration: the most obvious is during the translation, when he can’t concentrate on the words, but can’t stop hearing the music. And I can’t recall exactly but I think there were a few times he spaced in season 3.

So basically, I think Billy’s bearing did a lot more damage than we though, and Steve refuses to tell anyone else (Dustin knows, Maybe the other Upside Downers). So after season 3, and yet another beating to his head, things get slightly worse for a while. His balance is off, other bits and pieces. 

Dustin clues Robin in. I don’t know exactly what I’m thinking, but I do think there’s something a bit more between Robin and Steve in that final scene. She seems almost protective of him at that point. She’s not letting Kieth not give him a job. And that may be because they’re friends, and she wants someone around who knows what’s really going on. 

But it’s also because she knows that Steve has suffered because of this. Maybe he deliberately pissed the Russians off when they were captured because he didn’t want Robin getting hurt. And she loves him, like a brother, and over the last three months since everything happened she’s really got to know him, through the kids, mostly Dustin, and she hates that no one else seems to be on his side. 

Hoppers dead and the Byers are moving and Steve’s family doesn’t understand. And Steve’s medical stuff was mostly done by dr Owens, so it’s not on an official medical file thanks to the Upside Down. So Robin decides that she’s going to look after Steve. 

Dammit, just Robin being protective and looking after Steve, and Steve getting hit in the head so much having actual consequences. (Nothing life threatening, just something that stays with him and makes some things a bit difficult.)


	6. Dustin & Erica, friendship

Dustin and Erica went through something together. She might be a tough little kid, but she's still a kid, and when she needs someone to talk to she doesn't go to her big brother (because, yeah ok, she loves him, but he's a total nerd, and she just can't bring herself to talk to him, it's too hard, they're too alike in too many ways), she calls Dustin, and they spend hours on the phone talking about what happened, before it morphs into My Little Pony, then Dungeons and Dragons (because yes, it's pretty cool, and Dustim sometimes runs her little solo games to get her used to the rules, and doesn't mind tailoring it to be a little more 'girly' than he's used to playing, and he doesn't laugh at her Princess Elf Thief either, unlike her brother.)

She has a total schoolgirl crush on Steve, because really, did Sailor girl really think she and her friends went in for free samples everyday just for the icecream, the number of free samples was usually just to get Robin to tag Steve in to deal with them. So she also likes hanging out with Dustin because there's always a chance she'll get to spend some time with Steve as well (he's nice to look at, she doesn't need him for much else lol), and Robin's pretty cool, and smart too.

But it's still Dustin she calls in the middle of the night after a nightmare, it's him she goes to to talk about 'nerd stuff' even though she's not a nerd, and he's sort of funny and really smart about a lot of things that she isn't (and OMG, does she have a crush on Dustin? Her brothers friend Dustin? King of the Nerds DUSTIN? Aww shit, when did that happen?).

So yeah, Eric and Dustin friendship, some crushing from Erica, who of course denies denies denies. But when she finds herself defending him (he's such a nerd! even she can't make him seem cool to other people, but she's not gonna just let someone diss her friend) to someone else, she realises it isn't just a crush, she actually really likes hanging out with him, and that what it is really is friendship. Also, hanging round with him drives Lucas nuts, which is always fun.

So basically, schoolgirl crushes, and budding friendships that deepen into real ones, with the possibility that in 7-8 years might actually turn into a relationship. Might have another prompt for that later, but mostly just cute friendship.


	7. Dustin/Eleven, Dustin & Eleven

I have just rewatched seaon 1 and 3 (saving 2 and babysitter steve for later today), and there were two scenes that stood out in my mind and then melding together to form this idea.

Scene 1 : Eleven is getting shouted at by Mmike because they believe she led them to Wills Body, and had lied about him being alive. Mike is pissed off and he rides off leaving Lucas, Dustin and El alone. So how does El get back to Mikes house? Lucase didn't take her, he's already said he doesn't trust her, which leaves Dustin.

Scene 2 : When El throws the car at the russian in Starcourt, Dustin's face when he sees her, and the way she looks at him was just wonderous. El has so few friends she can't afford to lose any, and Dustin really does think shes just the hero of everthing, and the hug they share after.

So my mind, of course, ran away with it. So AU. Also, Dustins father is dead, that's why I think he and his mother moved to Hawkins, it plays into the idea I've had.

After the fight, when Mike leaves, Lucas also leaves, and Dustin is left standing with El, who is downright devestated that her first friend has spoken to her like that, and she doesn't understand how theres a body, because she knows Will is alive. Dustin tells her to come with him, they walk back, because he doesn't have a bike for two, and he tells her she can stay at his house of she wants. His moms on night shifts at the hospital this week (I don;t know where the idea of Dustins mom as a nurse came from in fannon, but I ike it), so no one will even know she's there, she'd be safe and they could figure something out for during the day if they had to. He also apologises for Mike, explains that Mike, Will and Lucas have all been friends since forever, that the idea of Will being dead has hit him hard, that he's sure he'll realise it wasn't fair to blame this on El and apologise himself.

Becuase Dustin hasn't shouted at her, or scared her, the whole time she's known him he's been kind, in an excitable way, and maybe too interested in her powers, but not in a malicious way like papa and the other scientists, when they reach his house and he gets her settled on his bed (because he mother raised him to give guests the bed so that's what he does), she tells him, quietly that Will isn't dead. That the body is wrong. She can't explain properly, but he's patient in his own way, and she has superpowers, who whose to say she can't see that Will isn't dead, that the body is a fake. And Dustins mom isn't there, and he really doesn't want to think that Will is really dead, because there's no one inthe house right then to comfort him, so he does what he always does when he's alone and the thoughts of death, his fathers, now Wills,creeps up on him. He distracts himself, agressively, with research.

So he asks El to explain what she meant about Will again, from the beginning, like she did at Mikes, turning the board upside down and stuff. El, confused, does so to the best of her ability and slowly, as the night wears on they puzzle it all out between themselves, eventually falling asleep after Dustin explains the Vale of Shadows to her, and then devloves into explaining D &D to her.

They're woken the next morning to Mike franticlly radioing asking about Eleven, horrified at himself for abandoning her like that. Dustin reassures him that she's safe with him, and then asks Mike to call lucas, because they need to have a meeting, about Will. And things progress normally from there.

El and Mike have their romance, but Mike can be volitile sometimes, and over protective to the point of madness, like Hopper, and as the years go by (nobody died, ok, my heart can't take everyone being split up like that), she realises that yes, she loves Mike, but he isn't who she wants to be with forever. And she spent just as much time reaching out to Dustin when she was stuck in that cabin for a year, enjoying his easy, accepting nature, his peace, which was always a stark counterpoint to Mike's intensity. And when she realised he was in trouble in the Mall, when she'd saved him, she had nearly been floored by the relief that he was ok. Her accepting, loyal and loving friend that she'd barely seen, but fircely loved and wanted to protect, as he had her. She thanked god everyday that her powers hadn't fizzled out before she could save him.

She and Dustin remain good friends, when she can't explain things to Mike or Max, or needs something explained to her, she goes to him, she watches his relationship with Suzie end, she watches as girls in high school don't given him a chance, and she burns with righteous anger for him, because he's her friend and she wants him to be happy. She and Mike break up, because as they grow up they realise they want different things. They love each other, but are no longer in love with each other.

So when prom rolls around El is without a date, oh, she's been asked, but lots of guys since she and Mike broke up, and Mike has said he'll take her if she wants, even Will offers. But El is on a mission. Dustin has said he isn't going, making a joke out of it, saying he doesn't want to, but she knows what happened at the SnowBall, and she knows how girls treat him. So El's going to ask him, she's talked to Max about it, she's made sure Mike knows, so he won't be hurt, because that's something people do if they date their ex's friend, it confuses her, but she'll do her best.

Dustin, meanwhile, has been fighting with his growing feelings for El for a long time, he hadn't even realised how he felt for the longest time, and when he did, he buried it deep and just did his best to be her friend, but unlike he feelings for Max, these didn't go away and he came to the horrifying conclusion that this wasn't just a crush. When Mike and El broke up he ruthlessly fought down hi hope that he maybe had a chance, because who was he kidding, he'd never managed a girlfriend that wasn't long distance, and even that didnt last, and if regular high school girls didn't give him the time of day romanically, how could he ever expect El to. No, being friends was enough. Besides, El had been with Mike, the best of the Party, she wouldn't downgrade to him anyway.

So when El marches up to him, in front of the whole school, and asks him if he would be her date for prom he is stunned. Of course he says yes. Then, when he goes home he panics. He calls Steve to get his advice, because he and Steve have been over his crush on El a million times, Robin rolls her eyes whenever Dustin shows up at their shared flat, but always throws in he two cents of advice, usually better than Steve's, but Steve's always done his best by Dustin, so he'll always be the first one he calls. 

When the prom arrives, he's half convinced himself that El only asked him to go as her friend, but he goes all out anyway, because even if that's the case, he's gonna make her feel like a princess. Hoppers glaring balefully at him when he arrives to pick her up in Steve's fancy car, that he let him borrow for the night, but doesn't say a word because El's threatened him into silence, she doesn't want him scaring Dustin off. Hhe nevr had a problem when they were just friends, she reminded him, so he doesn't get to have a problem now.

The Prom goes as it goes, El and Dustin dance all night, with each other, with their friends, and laugh and have fun and she drags him off somewhere quiet, and kisses him, and laughs while he flails at the implications that this was a real and proper date, and she tells him that yes, she does want to go out with him, properly. And just... adorable Eleven/Dustin, because they are dang beautiful together in my head.


	8. M-rated. Dustin, Troy & James, budding psychopaths, kidnapping

This is a bit out there, but it's in my head now and won't get out, so sorry everyone. (nobody dies or leaves, but El's powers are still a no show)

After season 3, Troy and James (that's the name of the other bully right?), happen upon Dustin just finishing up talking to Suzie on Weathertop. Wanting revenge, but unable to have gotten it before because Mike and Dustin and the other Nerds have always stuck together, and after holloween that weird high school senior, who used to be cool, had started to hand round. So seeing their chance the two jump Dustin, and knock him out, and carry him off to their hangout place, and old barn littered with old machinary, tractors, farm tools and chains, where the two of them have been messing around and sharing fantasies of what they would do to people if they got the chance.

They figure Dustin would be someone to start with. So they loop a chain round Dustins neck, padlock it on tight and attach the other end to something Dustin won't be able to move. They wait for him to wake up, and start threatening him, forcing him to strip to his underwear, belittling and humilaiting him. Dustin, still shook up from the beating and being knocked out, takes a while to come back to his senses fully enough to start using his own words to defend himself, eventually he pisses them off enough that they beat on him again and leave him in the barn overnight.

The next day Dustin is reported missing, because you know Steve isn't going to not realise his buddy isn't around. Troy and James watch as panic sets in, yet another missing kid, and after everything that's already happened etc etc, and they grin to each other and make plans to go back to the Barn later that day, to make Dustin even harder to find. Dustin meanwhile, with a mean headache and possible concussion has been trying to figure out how to pick the padlock open without any tools, but fails to do so before Troy and James come back, supplied with duct tape that they use to tie his hands and gag him.

They tell him whats happening in the town, and that no one's going to find him. Troy gets out his knife and starts telling Dustin what he'd like to do with it. A few days pass, with everyone out searching, and Steve and Dustins mom and friends frantic to find him, with Dustin getting weaker as Troy and James haven't given him any food, or water, he'd had to scrap the tape off his mouth and swallow muddy rainwater that had dripped in the barn roof, before James had caught him and made sure he couldn't do that again.

Finally someone picks up on Ttroy and James odd behaviour, and follow them out to the barn and find Dustin in a sorry state. Steve is furious, Hopper is furious, and the two budding psychopaths are hauled off to jail, and Dustin is taken to hospital, and later, when released, is showered in love and affection as he tries to get over those harrowing days. The only one who can really understand is Will, because the siutation was a bit similar, taken from his home and trapped in a dark and evil place, victimised and abused. Tthe others all stick to him like glue, El especially (she sobbed and begged his forgiveness for not being able to find him, and he forgave her because it wasn't her fault).

And cute loving cuddles and warm friendship, with Protective everyone, but especially super protective Steve (and even more surprisingly, Erica, who Dustin genuinely thought didn't like him at all).


	9. Fem!Dustin & Steve

Had a sudden vision of a little, curly haired female Dustin (Dusty), walking down the train tracks in season 2 with still very much himself Steve. Conversation includes.

"You're a guy."  
Steve side-eyes her. "Yeah."  
"What do you look for in a girlfriend?"  
"Uh? What?"  
"What do you look for in a girlfriend? I mean, your like really popular, and get loads of girlfriends, and you were dating Nancy. So what do you look for? What do guys look for?"  
"Uh... Are you seriously asking me... like how to get a boyfriend? You're like 9!"  
"I'm 13! And no... I just want to know what guys look for is all, and you're, you know, Steve Harrington."

And Steve tries to figure out what on earth this crazy little curly haired 9 year old wants, and is completely flumaxed by what he should tell her. Because he's not stupid enough to say why he dated most girls, so he gives some bullshit about Nancy, and somehow ends up giving the kid his hair secrets. Over the month between the end of season 2 and the Snowball, he doesn't know how but somehow he's become the go to guy for questions he's completely unqualified to answer by this little girl.

But somehow, the whole thing works, and he finds himself as a big brother. I also have this idea of Steve and Billy in a face off before the school year ends, because Steve's grown into being a big brother to a little sister, and he confronts Billy on how he treats Max, and her friends (and by default his little sister). And I don't even know, just something.

How different could their relationship be if Dustin was a girl and Steve still Steve. I have such a hankering for this, because how damn cute would it be Steve trying to answer Dusty's questions about boys and how she could make herself a good girlfriend to someone, and as their relationship deepens, he starts to get cold feet about all these questions and the idea of her dating anyone, especially the boys she seems to be looking to date (because like hell she's going to date someone like him when he was that age!). And Protective Steve, and adorable Dusty, and just Steve and Dusty becoming like real siblings.


End file.
